1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a file management system, a file management method, and a storage medium, and particularly to a file management system having a plurality of files stored therein and having a file list which contains index information put together for each file, a file management method applied to the file management system, and a storage medium for storing a program for executing the file management method.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, there is known an image management system in which a manuscript image such as a document or a drawing is read and appropriately edited and the image is recorded to a magnetic disk or an optical magnetic disk for a management.
In general, in this type of an image management system, image information obtained by reading a manuscript image is compressed before being recorded to a hard disk or an optical disk. In addition, index information for an image search is related with the image information for recording.
A required image is searched for on the basis of this index information and the image information is read out so as to be displayed on a display unit or the image is output to a record sheet by a printer. Furthermore, various types of image processing such as adding, editing, or processing an image is performed, if necessary.
Referring to FIGS. 18A and 18B, there is shown a block diagram of a constitution of a conventional and general document management system. FIG. 18A illustrates a constitution used for scanning a manuscript with a scanner and storing the image in a document database. A scanner 120 electrically reads a manuscript and converts the read image to digital signals with a photoelectric conversion element or the like. A scanner control part 121 controls an operation of the scanner 120. An index input part 123 inputs an index for the read image. A database management part 122 manages the index and the image. A document database 124 is used for storing images or index information. In this diagram, arrows indicate information flows.
First, an image read from a manuscript with the scanner 120 is sent to the database management part 122 via the scanner control part 121. In the database management part 122, index information inputted from the index input part 123 is added to the image received from the scanner control part 121 and they are stored in the document database 124.
FIG. 18B illustrates a constitution used for searching for a desired image from the document database with a search part. A document database 130 is used for storing images and indices therefor. A database management part 131 manages the document database 130. A search part 132 searches for a desired image from the document database 130 and it searches for an image according to search conditions inputted from a search condition input part 133. A search result list management part 134 manages search results. A reference numeral 135 indicates a search result list. In this diagram, arrows indicate information flows.
First, conditions of an image required to be searched for are inputted from the search condition input part 133, an image which satisfies the conditions is searched for using the search part 132, and the search result is output to the search result list 135 via the search result list management part 134. The search result list management part 134 can specify a display of the document which has been searched for on the basis of the search result list.
In the above conventional document management system, however, there are problems described below and their improvement has been desired. In other words, a document recording operation is separated from a search operation. Also in the recording operation, fixed procedures have been used for the image scanning and the index input operation. Furthermore, in the recording operation, the document recording operation and the index input operation have been performed for each document.
Therefore, an operator must perform the scanning and the index input operation alternately, which makes operations complicated and leads to a low productivity. Additionally, due to the separation of the recording operation from the search operation, it is not easy to perform operations of searching for a document for reusing index data which has been used in the past to reference or copy the index data of the search result displayed in a document list as index data of a document to be inputted.
In addition, incorrect data inputted by an incorrect operation must be modified following a search operation after the recording operation is terminated once, which requires a lot of operation steps and operation time.
Furthermore, if a plurality of indices must be modified, they cannot be modified at a time.
There are suggested methods of reducing a time for an index input by using other applications such as a spread sheet program to create index data separately and to paste the index data on a document list for using the data.
In these methods, however, the paste data is pasted on the document list in an original array and therefore there is a problem that the original data must be created in an order of a display on the document list. Additionally, there is a problem that a worker is unlikely to notice a deviation of rows in the document list in case of an occurrence of the deviation.
In addition, there is a problem that if an input of a plurality of identical indices is required the same content must be inputted repeatedly even if an external application is used.